


Crossroads

by atomicallyawesome



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AFAB Frisk, Female Chara, Female Frisk, Flashbacks, HorrorTale, Language, More AUs to be added, Multi, like holy shit a lot of profanity, underswap - Freeform, undertale - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-09-11 16:31:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8998369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atomicallyawesome/pseuds/atomicallyawesome
Summary: The multiverse is a vast, vast thing.  But with all the universes inside of it, the boundaries between them become unstable... causing AUs to collapse in on one another.  Now the inhabitants of the AUs must find a way to repair the boundaries, and go back home...[currently being re-written.]





	1. Smoke and Mirrors

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to my new ut fic, crossroads! if that summary didn't make it clear, this is basically a fic where a bunch of aus cross over. which is why it's called crossroads.
> 
> ((also yes i am working on the next chapter of my underswap charisk fic i'm just having trouble with it.))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter was re-written on 7/9/2017.

A human blinked her eyes open, shivering in the cold. She sat up, rubbing her head, grumbling to herself about her headache. Suddenly, she realized two things: 1). She was in Snowdin Forest, instead of near the exit to the Underground, and 2). She was corporeal. No, not just corporeal, alive. A third thing suddenly occurred to the human: she couldn't sense her partner.

"Partner? Where are you? Did you RESET?" she called out, standing up. Come to think of it, a RESET wouldn't make sense as what had caused this. RESETs sent both her and her partner back to that patch of golden flowers where she was buried, and unless she had finally gone mad, this was not that patch of flowers. So if a RESET was off the table, what exactly had happened. The human shivered, slipping her hand into her pocket. Her eyes widened. Her knife wasn't there.

"Of course it is not there, Dreemurr..." she mumbled, trying to rationalize it away. The Real Knife was back in Asgore's house, of course it wouldn't be in her pocket. She was an idiot for thinking it would be there at all. Her partner was a pacifist, she would never pick up the knife, even for her benefit. Maybe that wasn't as much of a good thing as it seemed, come to think of it. She sighed, running a hand through her auburn hair, wincing when she met tangles. Seems like that hadn't changed one bit. "Focus, Dreemurr. Frisk has to be here somewhere, right? You are never far from her when she RESETs..." she mumbled, stuffing both hands into her pockets and shivering. She made a mental note to get somewhere warm as soon as she could. This was why she had always hated Snowdin: it was freezing cold.

Chara started walking in a random direction, boots crunching in the snow. Sure, she knew fire magic which would probably warm her up, but she didn't want to risk giving away her position. After all, if a RESET had occurred, that irritating Comedian would surely be either at his station, or near the Ruins Door. And she really didn't want to deal with him. He'd probably take advantage of the fact that she was now living and kill her.

"hey, kid."

Chara froze. That voice... it didn't sound like the Comedian. It sounded like Papyrus, just lower and deeper. Something wasn't right. This had never happened in any RESET, so why was it happening now? Now she really wished she had her knife.

"... kid? you okay?"

Chara forced a smile and turned around. "Of course I am okay, Papyrus! Why would I not be?" she asked, looking up at him. She bit back a startled remark, settling for just raising an eyebrow. This definitely wasn't right. Papyrus wasn't wearing that dorky battle body, he was wearing an orange hoodie and cargo shorts. And... was he smoking? Now Chara knew she must have gone mad. From what she knew, Papyrus didn't smoke. So why was he smoking right now? This was... well, strange would be one way to describe it, she supposed.

Suddenly, Papyrus's expression changed from a nonchalant grin, to an irritated snarl. "alright, frisk, why are you possessing chara again? are you planning to do genocide? you better not be, or else... i'll give you a bad time."

Chara's eyes widened, and she took a step back. This wasn't good. If Papyrus was acting like Sans, he probably had similar powers, and he could seriously hurt her. And as much as Chara hated being human, she didn't want to go back to being dead. The void was cold and lonely, and she didn't want to give up life for solitude. An idea occurred to her. Perhaps she could scare him off with a display of magic. That tended to scare off most other monsters, though it had never spooked Sans... probably because he'd known her before she died. Offhandedly, Chara wondered just how old the skeleton brothers, and their father Gaster, were. Whatever. She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. There would be time to ponder that later. Now it was time to summon magic and scare off Papyrus.

"Papyrus, I do not know exactly why you have chosen to impersonate Sans..." she began, taking her hands out of the pockets of her shorts, and spreading them on either side of her, as if she were shrugging. Papyrus raised an eye ridge, and an orange light started to glow in his left eye socket. Chara remembered what Papyrus had done in those few timelines where she and Frisk had managed to kill Sans before Papyrus, and smirked. Papyrus wasn't nearly as strong as Sans, though his abilities were far flashier. Probably a side effect of how "great" he considered himself to be. Really, calling Papyrus great was the overstatement of the century. Chara had him figured out: he was just a weaker version of Sans, given to being emotional and flashy. Nothing special, really. Even Asriel was more impressive, even as that ridiculous excuse for a deity.

Red flames lit in the palms of both of Chara's hands, and her sclera went pitch black. Her irises disappeared, leaving only red slits for pupils. Black liquid of a similar consistency to tar began to ooze out of Chara's eyes, giving her a look she'd always considered quite horrifying. "... but if you try to attack me, I can assure you, you will regret it." she finished, her expression changing from a smirk to the ghastly grin of a corpse.

Papyrus took a step back. "jeez, frisk, chill. you're not that powerful, you're just a dead eleven-year-old with magic." he said, the dim light in his eye socket changing to a full-blown fire. Chara heard a low hum behind her, and whirled around, pushing her hands out in front of her and pouring more magic into the fire, creating a makeshift barrier. It wouldn't do much as a shield, just one blast from Papyrus's Gaster Blaster would probably cause it to fizzle out, but maybe it would work as a deterrent.

Suddenly, the Blaster disappeared. Chara dropped her fire barrier, going back from her "creepy face" to her normal expression, turning to face Papyrus.

"Is there a particular reason you have decided not to attack me? Or have you heeded my warning?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Papyrus shrugged, letting the fire in his eye die down and taking a drag of his cigarette. "you ain't got a weapon on ya. and you don't talk like frisk does. frisk doesn't have that accent, and their voice doesn't sound like that." he said looking down at Chara. "huh. come to think of it, you look a bit like chara, but you don't talk like she does either. she's got a quieter voice, and she actually uses contractions when she talks. so who are ya, kid?"

"... Hm. Well, this is certainly... odd. You see, my name is Chara." Chara said, putting her hands back into the pockets of her shorts. She didn't trust this guy. But hey, he'd stopped trying to kill her, so maybe things would work out better? Maybe. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her.

"Wait one moment... hm... while I was dead, Gaster mentioned something about... a universe where it is the same, but something has changed... I suppose you are from that universe?" she said, raising an eyebrow. Papyrus shrugged again, taking another drag of his cigarette and coughing. Chara rolled her eyes. She wondered for a moment how skeletons could smoke, but decided she really didn't want to know. Pondering the biology of skeleton monsters was probably going to give her a bigger headache than the one she'd had earlier. And she really didn't want that.

"Bloody hell..." she murmured, looking around. With this distraction of a possible battle out of the way, her original goal had come to mind. Where was Frisk, anyway? Frisk had a natural charm to her that made most monsters a bit friendlier towards her, which was definitely nice while travelling through places almost infested with monsters, like Snowdin Forest and Waterfall. Finding Frisk would make finding out whatever had happened here certainly a far easier task, and as much as Chara hated admitting she needed help, right now it seemed any help she could get would be invaluable. Chara ran a hand through her hair again, once more wincing when she met tangles. She really needed to stop doing that, at least, she needed to stop until she could go and brush her hair.

"Well, Papyrus, as nice as it was to encounter you, I must be going now. Goodbye. Hopefully, we will not meet again." Chara said, turning around and beginning to walk away. Papyrus made no move to stop her.

She had not gotten more than fifty feet away from Papyrus, when she felt someone or something breathing down her neck. Raising an eyebrow, she turned around... but nothing was there. Lowering her eyebrow, she shrugged and continued onwards. A couple minutes later, she heard crunching behind her, like someone walking through the snow, and heard a stick snap. She turned around again, still finding nothing. Letting out an irritated hiss, Chara once more continued on her way, mumbling something under her breath about monsters with strange senses of humor. As the snow crunched under her boots, a thought made itself disturbingly clear to Chara, and her blood ran cold.

Snowdin Forest was completely, eerily, disturbingly silent.

Chara swallowed hard, clenching her fists in her pockets. Something was horribly wrong. Snowdin Forest was never this quiet, even during what monsters considered night.

"human..."

"don't you know how to greet a new pal...? turn around... and s h a k e m y h a n d . "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew! i'm a lot prouder of this rewrite than i am of the original chapter, to be completely honest.


	2. Dozin' Off in a Patch of Buttercups

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaand welcome to the next chapter of crossroads! and yes, the title is symbolic.
> 
> also congrats to the person who guessed the person in the green hoodie is storyshift chara!

Chara stared up at the human in a green hoodie. Two things dimly registered in her mind. One, this human looked like her, but taller. Two, this human was probably dangerous. Normally, she would have run away, but she was too confused and vaguely scared.

"Uhhh... who... who are you?" Chara asked the green hoodie-clad human. She was met with a chuckle.

"i dunno, kid, why don't ya take a guess? might be wrong, might be right. heh. heh heh."

That was what made Chara facepalm. Of course. Of fuckin' course. This tall comedian wannabe was gonna be just as unhelpful as Orange McSweatshirt back there. "Alright, fine, if you won't tell me your name, I'll call you... Tall, Pale, and Useless. Perfect."

That pissed the taller human off. Under their hood, their left eye flared up bright red, and they used their telekinesis to lift up Chara into the air. "fucking call me chara, or don't talk to me at all, kid. i already don't like you. now let's try that again... miss short and bratty." they hissed.

Chara smirked. Apparently this punk, who was some other version of her, tried to act like Sans. How absolutely pathetic. Well, at least now she had someone to piss off for fun. "Wow, someone's on her period! Didn't know you were that touchy, Tall Pale and Useless! And no, I won't call you Chara. Mainly because that's MY name, bitch."

The other Chara slammed Chara into the snow, and growled "i'm not a damn girl! and before you open your mouth again, i'm not a boy either! now, since your name's chara too, i'll be KNIFE - heh heh - and let you call me something different. call me doze." They lifted Chara back out of the snow, and set her on her feet. As pissy as they could get, at least they had some manners.

Chara brushed herself off, actually looking scared. Apparently this comedian wannabe wasn't that much of a wannabe. They even had powers like Sans did. "A-alright, uh, Doze, sorry about that. I promise I won't do that again, honest." she said, backing two steps away from Doze. She didn't even call them out on that awful knife pun. Something told her that Doze could really hurt her, even worse than Papyrus could. In fact, even Papyrus, from where he was standing, seemed shocked.

"whoah, whoah, uh, doze? mind calmin' down?" Papyrus asked. He winced when Doze turned to face him. Suddenly, he saw something. Doze was wearing a rainbow bandanna. That seemed bad.

"fuck. off. you may sound like the guy behind the ruins door, but i'm sure you're not him. don't tell me what to do. i'm not in a good mood." they hissed, pulling the bandanna over their mouth. Papyrus searched his thoughts for something that might explain why they were acting this way. His sockets widened. The bandanna... the irritability... "oh my god..." he whispered. That was almost exactly how he acted in a genocide run.

He took a step towards Doze. "kid. look... you've lost someone close to you, haven't you? you're from a genocide run." Doze stared down at the snow, almost looking ashamed of themselves as they nodded, clutching their bandanna. Papyrus actually felt really bad. As tall as Doze was, he had a feeling they weren't that much older than Sans, back home. Which would make them around... eighteen. Maybe nineteen. Still in their teens.

Chara winced. Genocide runs always made her feel bad, even though she was often responsible for them. And if Doze was like Sans, there were two possibilities for who could be like Papyrus where she was from. Frisk, and Asriel. Most likely Asriel. She'd be just as touchy if she'd have lost Asriel to some jerk. And if Doze had flipped out like that on her... most likely their Frisk was responsible. "Uh... can I say something here? Look, uh, I know I'm not too responsible for whatever happened to your brother, but, uh, I'm really sorry. I had a brother too. And... uh... yeah... he died too." she said, nervously scratching the back of her neck. Doze nodded, and slipped their hands into their hoodie pockets.

"sorry for flipping out on you like that, uh, chara. it's just, well, you look like the kid who killed rei." they said.

Papyrus kind of spaced out as he listened to Doze and Chara talk. He leaned against a tree, and closed his sockets, taking another puff on his cigarette, hoping to get a nice nap. Suddenly, he sensed something. Two options presented themselves: leave it alone, or go check it out. Something about what he sensed seemed familiar, so he decided to go check it out. He strolled off in the direction of what he sensed, humming his own theme. His sockets widened when he saw who it was.

"aw hell no. frisk? that you?"

The human kid looked up from where they were, and backed up. "Oh, uh, salutations, Papyrus! Nothing to see here! I'll, uh, just be on my way byeee!" they said, before running off. Suddenly, Papyrus teleported behind them and grabbed them by the back of their sweater.

"kid. if you aren't doing anything bad, i'm not gonna be angry at you. just... mind answering me something? you seen chara or sans anywhere?" he asked them. Frisk shook their head frantically. Papyrus sighed. Apparently they were terrified of him still. He didn't blame them. After all, he'd been pretty harsh on them before. "look, frisk? i don't exactly trust you on your own, no offense, but you aren't exactly all that in your right mind. i've got some pals from another universe, and i'm gonna take you back to them. it's gonna be fine. you'll like 'em. they're versions of chara." he told them. Frisk nodded, and climbed up on his shoulders. Papyrus rolled his sockets. As mature as Frisk was, they still liked some small kid things like climbing up on his shoulders. He reached up to pat them on the head, and started strolling back to where Doze and Chara were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you guys didn't guess from the characters introduced in this chapter, here's what the title is symbolism for:
> 
> dozin' off - storyshift chara (who's nickname is doze)  
> patch of buttercups - underswap frisk (who's nickname is gonna be buttercups)


	3. Stabbing Buddies!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i ran out of chapter names.

Honestly, Papyrus thought bringing his Frisk to meet Doze and Chara went fairly well. Chara had quickly struck up a conversation with them, probably because she noticed how similar Frisk was to herself. She'd even come up with a nickname for Frisk: Buttercups. Strangely enough, Buttercups had actually smiled at their new nickname.

Papyrus let out a small chuckle to himself. Nicknaming the kid Buttercups was pretty fitting. After all, they'd eaten buttercups to die... they'd been buried under a patch of buttercups... they wore a buttercup in their hair... and most fitting of all, they grew buttercups from their injuries. He suddenly shuddered, remembering the first time he'd seen that happen. It had spooked even Sans and his Chara. Then again, the entire concept of literal buttercups growing from injuries was pretty spooky in and of itself.

He sighed, causing Buttercups, Chara - who he was going to call Shorty, just because it made her angry -, and Doze to look at him.

"'ey, there a problem, carrot guy?" Doze asked him. Papyrus slightly cringed when they called him "carrot guy". They must've been adopted by Toriel or something - or wait, wouldn't it be Asgore in their universe? The differences between his universe and most others were confusing as all get out.

"nope, nothing much. i'm gonna go see if there's anyone else 'round here. who knows, i might find someone from one of your guys' universes." He said, shrugging, as if it were the most casual thing in the world. His sockets met Buttercups's maroon eyes, and a look of understanding passed between them. He wasn't just doing this to find other people. Finding other people would be nice, of course, but he was mainly looking for his brother and his Chara. Especially his Chara. Sans could defend himself. Chara... Chara was too nice for her own good, Papyrus had to admit.

"watch over buttercups and shorty, doze." Papyrus told the hoodie-clad human, before turning around and walking off into the forest.

Oh, would he regret it soon enough.

\--

As all this was occurring, another individual was awaking.

He blinked his sockets wide open, and stood up, feeling a cold sensation on the inside of his skull. Calmly, the skeleton tilted his skull down, opened his jaws as wide as they would go, and started smacking the back of his head. He did this for a few seconds, until all the snow that had gotten inside the giant hole in his skull was gone.

Sans adjusted his skull back into place, and slipped his hands into the pocket of his coat as he looked around. This wasn't the Snowdin Forest he knew, that was for sure. Last he remembered, Snowdin Forest was a lot duller. A lot... creepier. Besides, where was... fuck, what was that brat's name again? Oh well, it didn't matter. She wouldn't be around to annoy him, once he found her, that was for sure.

He was brought out of his thoughts by a "Mister Sans? Is that you?" from behind him.

Sans turned his skull a full one hundred and eighty degrees - a trick he'd learned to spook humans - to look at the girl behind him. A grin spread across his face.

She was obviously a human, and a well-cared for one at that. Her hair was cut short, but it was fluffy and soft-looking, and Sans had a feeling her hair was cut like that because of choice rather than necessity. The kid was wearing an oversized sweater, complete with the stripes that showed she was a kid. Sans made note of the fact that her sweater was an ivy green color, with two thick yellow stripes across it. It'd be useful for tracking her down later.

The small girl stared at him in shock, and began to back away. An idea occurred to Sans. He could trick her into thinking he was her friend. And then, if he got hungry... well, the ending to that would be fairly simple. He let out a laugh that he attempted to make sound friendly.

"'eya, kid. m'name's sans, yeah, but i don't think i'm the sans you know, if that reaction's anything to go by. still, we seem to be 'ere, so how about you 'n me be pals? sound good, kid?"

The child nodded, and Sans turned his body to face where his skull was. He held out a bony hand, which the girl shook after rolling up one sleeve so her hand was exposed.

"My name's Chara." she told him, before nervously looking around. She pulled her sleeve back down, and took a step back. Most likely for personal space.

"Jeez, this place gives me the creeps..." she mumbled. Sans snickered to himself. Apparently this small girl was afraid of Snowdin Forest. He racked his brains for where he'd heard her name before, but couldn't quite remember it. Ah, well. If it was important, he'd have remembered.

He heard footsteps approaching, and looked towards the source, squinting. Out of the corner of his eyesocket, he saw Chara turn to look at the source of the sound, and perk up.

\--

Papyrus had heard voices in the direction he was heading in, and decided that he should go check them out. What he saw when he got there, however, surprised him.

The skeleton resembled his brother, but with a huge crack in his skull, a single red glowing eye in one socket, and... was that blood on his shirt?! Papyrus was horrified just by looking at this guy! But what made him concerned was who else he saw.

"chara!" he said, opening his arms for a hug. Chara dashed towards him, jumping into his arms. Papyrus hugged the short girl close, and mumbled "i'm glad you're safe, kiddo. frisk and i were damn worried..." to her.

He looked up when he heard the other skeleton laughing his skull off. Not literally, but you get the idea.

"damn, this is rich as all hell! a MONSTER, being nice to a human? jeez, and i thought tori was a damn weirdo, actually feelin' bad about what she did!"

Papyrus growled, and said "what, are you not even capable of basic kindness?"

This was met with more laughter from the shorter skeleton, who eventually calmed down. "'course i am. i just don't befriend humans."

The short skeleton made his eyesockets go completely dark, and added "i eat them."


	4. technically not a chapter??

howdy! atomicallyawesome here! yeah, i'm not dead, for anyone who still looks at this.

this may seem sudden to some of you, but i've re-read the past three chapters, and i've decided they need a re-write. major things may change, and if i think a chapter should be separated into multiple chapters, i will do so. chapters will have a note saying they were re-written, and when.

so yeah, short little thing, just wanted to let y'all know that this is getting a re-write before i continue on with the story. this'll be deleted after the re-write is complete.


End file.
